Fatal falls from cliffs: Étretat strengthens safety measures and bans

Selfies, carelessness... On average, two to three accidental deaths each year, to which must be added suicides, between 10 and 15 per year. And the multiple interventions to rescue boaters or walkers who venture into the Trou-à-l'homme, accessible at low tide, and get trapped when the water rises: 16 interventions in 2022, 32 in 2023.

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Erosion: Twenty years of cliff collapses in the Basque Country, in pictures

PORTFOLIO - For the first time in five years, sensors installed on a portion of the Corniche coastline have detected a movement requiring, on April 5, 2025, a closure to traffic between Ciboure and Urrugne via the coastline. The Department hopes for a reopening early this week. This is an opportunity to open the archives on the increasingly significant retreat of the coastline in the Basque Country.

The town hall has taken new, more drastic measures than the previous ones, limiting access to this emblematic site on the Normandy coast. The high edge of the cliffs and the beaches at their foot, which are threatened by the risk of landslides, are now closed to the public, as are "access to the places called La Chambre des demoiselles and La Descente-Chaudron, as well as the tunnels crossing the tips of the cliffs" and the Trou-à-l'homme.

No more walks are possible along the cliffs on the high plateau less than five meters from the edge, nor on the beaches, along the entire municipal coastline, except for the one on the right of the promenade dike.

Despite this order dated April 28, on Thursday, May ¹ , three people—two adults and a child—had to be rescued from the Trou-à-l'Homme. They will each be fined between 35 and 150 euros for violating the ban. Fees will also be charged by the Sdis.